By Dr. Dan O'Keeffe and Mary C. Moro
As Told to Toni Anderson-Somme

In 1933 Lois Perett, a member of the Schenectady Wintersports Club, was made head of their First Aid Committee. She began the first ski patrol in the United States.

Training began in earnest in March 1934 in preparation for the snow trains. Lois Perrett arranged to have ten competent skiers carry first aid kits in their knapsacks. They were, for the most part, local high school skiers. I am proud to say I was one of the charter members of the Ski Patrol, along with George Hall, Ray Donahue, Arnold Alexander and Bill Burto.

Telephone stations were established at strategic points along the trails to summon aid. One man was stationed at the top of Gore at Barton Mines to receive the calls and send the so-called "hospital" sleds to the rescue. These could be ridden and steered like dog sleds.

In 1938 Charles Wade made "three new sled ambulances resembling stretchers on skis and first aid cabins on stilts of iron pipe." These cabins were placed along the trails and housed the sleds and supplies such as blankets and First Aid Boxes. 

There was a reason for the way these stations were constructed. The eight-foot stilts were erected at such a height to keep the cabins above the snow line in winter, and the iron support stilts were "to keep the porcupines from chewing the wood items. However, despite the committee's best the industrious animals did manage to wreak some havoc and it was reported that because of this, the porcupines had necessitated tin sheeting in some of the stations." 

I personally recall Ray Donahue throwing his shoulder out at the bottom of Pete Gay Trail. The ski patrol put it back in place by a very unique and unconventional manner. The pain was so extreme it took two men to hold Ray down and another to place a Coke bottle in the axilla (his arm pit) and one to rotate his arm over the Coke bottle and across his chest. It popped back in the socket. Certainly this was an unconventional method never written up in the New England Journal of Medicine. 

Although Ray might have been cursing the ski patrol members at the time, the relief this procedure provided brought his immediate thanks, after a few carefully chosen words regarding our lack of sympathy, initially. That kind of quick thinking and medical know-how resulted in many original methods of dealing with the injuries we encountered on the slopes and trails.

One such device created by Dr. Jimmy Glenn was a wooden stabilizer meant to immobilize a broken leg or ankle on the descent from the mountainside. A break that wasn't stabilized could result in even more severe injury in the attempt to rescue the skier and get him off the mountain. Dr. Glenn realized that some sort of instrument or tool was needed to keep the break from being jarred. 

A wooden platform allowed the leg injury to be placed atop its surface with two wooden slabs meant to run on either side of the leg, keeping it from twisting. The injured limb would be wrapped with bandages or gauze and SO, prevented from moving side to side or bending as the ski patrol carried the injured party off the slopes. The ski patrol was so pleased and proud of Dr. Glenn's invention that they were determined to have it returned once the injured skier had been treated at the hospital. They proudly marked the device,"Property of Gore Mountain Ski Club" and asked politely, that it be returned to them once it had served its purpose. 

This might have been overkill, since every Emergency Room doctor quickly became familiar with the device and knew where had come from. No other winter sports area had one like it, and local hospitals, one and all, knew where it came from as soon as they set eyes on the "fracture box," as we so fondly dubbed The job of the ski patrol was so appreciated and their responsibilities taken so seriously that the trains would not be allowed to leave the station on a Sunday evening until all of the ski patrols had called in and it was known that every skier had safely made it down the mountainside. 

Mike Brassel reminded me of the dedication of our two most trusted physicians, when he stated...

Dr. Glenn and later, Dr. Grumblatt dedicated their weekends to setting broken legs and sending the more seriously injured to surgeons at the Glens Falls Hospital.

It would have been easy to put a "Closed" sign on the door and enjoy a leisurely, relaxing two days. These truly sainted men represented the best of their profession.

Well said, Mike. They did indeed.